Malay refers to a group of languages closely related to each other to the point of mutual intelligibility but that linguists consider to be separate languages.[citation needed] They are grouped into a group called "Local Malay", part of a larger group called "Malayan" within the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family.[5][6][7] The various forms of Malay are spoken in Brunei, Indonesia (where the national language, Indonesian, is a variety of it), Malaysia, Singapore, and southern Thailand.[8]Malay is an official language of Brunei and Malaysia, and one of the official languages in Singapore. The national language of Indonesia is Indonesian, formally referred to as Bahasa Indonesia which literally translates as "Indonesian language". It is also called Bahasa Nasional (National Language) and Bahasa Persatuan/Pemersatu (Unifying Language) in Indonesia. Indonesian is also used in East Timor, a consequence of more than 20 years of Indonesian military occupation and is now a "working language" of that country. In Malaysia, the language is now officially known as Bahasa Malaysia ("Malaysian language"), though constitutionally it is called Bahasa Melayu. Singapore, Brunei and southern Thailand refer to the language as Bahasa Melayu ("Malay language").Contents[hide]• 1 Origin • 2 History • 3 Classification and related languages • 4 Writing system • 5 Extent of use and dialects • 6 Phonology • 7 Grammar o 7.1 Word Formation  7.1.1 Affixes  7.1.2 Compound word  7.1.3 Reduplication  7.1.4 Measure words o 7.2 Part of Speech  7.2.1 Function words  7.2.1.1 Negations o 7.3 Grammatical gender o 7.4 Pluralization o 7.5 Verbs o 7.6 Word order • 8 Borrowed words • 9 Simple phrases in Malay o 9.1 Colloquial and contemporary usage • 10 Dictionary • 11 See also • 12 References • 13 External links

[edit] OriginThere are many hypotheses as to where the Malay language originated. One of these is that it came from Sumatra island. The oldest written documents in Malay, dated from the end of the 7th century AD, were found on Bangka Island, off the southeastern coast of Sumatra and in Palembang in southern Sumatra. "Malayu" was the name of an old kingdom located in Jambi province in eastern Sumatra. It was known in ancient Chinese texts as "Mo-lo-yo" and mentioned in the Nagarakertagama, an old Javanese epic written in 1365, as one of the "tributary states" of the Majapahit kingdom in eastern Java.The use of Malay throughout insular and peninsular Southeast Asia is linked to the rise of Muslim kingdoms and the spread of Islam, itself a consequence of growing regional trade.Indonesia pronounced a variety of Malay its official language when it gained independence, calling it Bahasa Indonesia. However, the language had already been used as the lingua franca throughout the archipelago since the 15th century. Since 1928, nationalists and young people throughout the Indonesian archipelago declared it to be Indonesia's only official language, as proclaimed in the Sumpah Pemuda "Youth Vow." Thus Indonesia was the first country to designate it as an official language. In several parts of Indonesia, in Sumatra and Borneo Islands, Malay is spoken as local dialect of Malay ethnic.In Malaysia, the term Bahasa Malaysia, which was introduced by the National Language Act of 1967, was in use until the 1990s, when most academics and government officials reverted to "Bahasa Melayu," used in the Malay version of the Federal Constitution. According to Article 152 of the Federal Constitution, Bahasa Melayu is the official language of Malaysia. "Bahasa Kebangsaan" (National Language) was also used at one point during the 1970s. However, at present day, Malaysians prefer to identify their national language as Bahasa Malaysia once again.[citation needed] Similar to Malaysia in the mid 1990's, "Bahasa Melayu" was defined as Brunei's official language in the country's 1959 Constitution.Indonesian and Malay are separated by some centuries of different vocabulary development, partly due to the influence of different colonial languages; Dutch in the case of Indonesia, formerly the Dutch East Indies and English in the case of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, which were formerly under British rule.Some Malay dialects, however, show only limited mutual intelligibility with the standard language; for example, Kelantanese pronunciation is difficult even for some fellow Malay speakers to understand, while Indonesian contains a lot of words unique to it that are unfamiliar to speakers of Malay.The language spoken by the Peranakan (Straits Chinese, a hybrid of Chinese settlers from the Ming Dynasty and local Malays) is a unique patois of Malay and the Chinese Hokkien dialect, which is mostly spoken in the former Straits Settlements of Penang and Malacca in Malaysia, and the Indonesian Archipelago.[edit] HistoryMain article: Old MalayThe history of the Malay language can be divided into five periods: Old Malay, the Transitional Period, the Malacca Period, Late Modern Malay, and Jewish Malay.Old Malay is unintelligible to a speaker of modern Malay. It was heavily influenced by Sanskrit, the lingua franca of Hinduism and Buddhism. The earliest known inscription in the Old Malay language was found in Sumatra, written in Pallava script[9] and dates back to 7th century - known as Kedukan Bukit Inscription, it was discovered by the Dutchman M. Batenburg on 29 November, 1920, at Kedukan Bukit, South Sumatra, on the banks of the River Tatang, a tributary of the River Musi. It is a small stone of 45 by 80 cm.The Malay language came into widespread use as the trade language of the Sultanate of Malacca (1402 – 1511). During this period, the Malay language developed rapidly under the influence of Islamic literature. The development changed the nature of the language with massive infusion of Arabic, Persian and Hindi or Sanskrit vocabularies. Under the Sultanate of Malacca the language evolved into a form recognizable to speakers of Jewish Malay.[edit] Classification and related languagesSee also: Austronesian languages#Cross-linguistic Comparison ChartMalay is a member of the Austronesian family of languages which includes languages from Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean, with a smaller number in continental Asia. Malagasy, a geographic outlier spoken in Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, is also a member of this linguistic family.Malay belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the family, which includes the Languages of the Philippines and Malagasy, which is further subdivided into Outer Hesperonesian languages and Nuclear Malayo-Polynesian of which Malay is a member. Malay's closest relatives therefore include Javanese, Acehnese, Chamorro and Palauan.Although each language of the family is mutually unintelligible, their similarities are rather striking. Many roots have come virtually unchanged from their common Austronesian ancestor. There are many cognates found in the languages' words for kinship, health, body parts and common animals. Numbers, especially, show remarkable similarities.[edit] Writing systemMain article: Malay alphabetMalay is normally written using Latin alphabet called Rumi, although a modified Arabic script called Jawi also exists. Rumi is official in Malaysia and Singapore, and Indonesian has a different official orthography also using the Latin script. Rumi and Jawi are co-official in Brunei. Efforts are currently being undertaken to preserve Jawi script and to revive its use amongst Malays in Malaysia, and students taking Malay language examination in Malaysia have the option of answering questions using Jawi script. The Latin alphabet, however, is still the most commonly used script in Malaysia, both for official and informal purposes.Historically, Malay has been written using various scripts. Before the introduction of Arabic script in the Malay region, Malay was written using Pallava, Kawi and Rencong script and are still in use today by the Champa Malay in Vietnam and Cambodia. Old Malay was written using Pallava and Kawi script, as evident from several inscription stones in the Malay region. Starting from the era of kingdom of Pasai and throughout the golden age of the Sultanate of Malacca, Jawi gradually replaced these scripts as the most commonly used script in the Malay region. Starting from the 17th century, under Dutch and British influences, Jawi was gradually replaced by the Rumi script. [10][edit] Extent of use and dialectsMain article: Varieties of MalaySee also: Malay-based creole languagesThe extent to which Malay is used in these countries varies depending on historical and cultural circumstances. Bahasa Melayu is the national language in Malaysia by Article 152 of the Constitution of Malaysia, and became the sole official language in West Malaysia in 1968, and in East Malaysia gradually from 1974. English continues, however, to be widely used in professional and commercial fields and in the superior courts. Other minority languages are also commonly used by the country's large ethnic minorities. The situation in Brunei is similar to that of Malaysia.[edit] PhonologyNote: this article uses the orthography of Malaysian Malay. For Indonesian orthography, see Indonesian language.Table of consonant phonemes of Malay BilabialLabio-DentalDentalAlveolarPost-AlveolarPalatalVelarUvularGlottal

mempe(R)- kemas (tidy up, orderly) memperkemas (to arrange further) dipe(R)- dalam (deep) diperdalam (is being further deepen) te(R)- makan (eat) termakan (to have accidentally eaten)Suffix -kan letak (place, keep) letakkan (keep) - Imperative transitive -i jauh (far) jauhi (avoid) - Imperative transitiveCircumfix be(R)-...-an pasang (pair) berpasangan (in pairs) be(R)-...-kan tajuk (title) bertajukkan (to be titled, to entitle) me(N)-...-kan pasti (sure) memastikan (to make sure) me(N)-...-i teman (company) menemani (to accompany) mempe(R)-...-kan guna (use) mempergunakan (to utilise, to exploit) mempe(R)-...-i ajar (teach) mempelajari (to study) ke-...-an hilang (disappear) kehilangan (to lose) di-...-i sakit (pain) disakiti (to be hurt by) di-...-kan benar (right) dibenarkan (is allowed to) dipe(R)-...-kan kenal (know, recognise) diperkenalkan (is being introduced)Adjective affixes are attached to root words to form adjectives:Type of adjective affixes Affix Example of root word Example of derived wordPrefix te(R)- kenal (know) terkenal (famous) se- lari (run) selari (parallel)Infix -el- serak (disperse) selerak (messy) -em- cerlang (radiant bright) cemerlang (bright, excellent) -er- sabut (husk) serabut (dishevelled)Circumfix ke-...-an barat (west) kebaratan (westernized)In addition to these affixes, Malay also has a lot of borrowed affixes from other languages such as Sanskrit, Arabic and English. For example maha-, pasca-, eka-, bi-, anti-, pro- etc.[edit] Compound wordIn Malay, new words can be formed by joining two or more root words. Compound words, when they exist freely in a sentence, are often written separately. Compound words are only attached to each other when they are bound by circumfix or when they are already considered as stable words.For example, the word kereta which means car and api which means fire, are compounded to form a new word kereta api (train). Similarly, ambil alih (take over) is formed using the root words ambil (take) and alih (move), but will link together when a circumfix is attached to it, i.e. pengambilalihan (takeover). Certain stable words, such as kakitangan (personnel), and kerjasama (corporation), are spelled as one word even when they exist freely in sentences.[edit] ReduplicationThere are four types of words reduplication in Malay, namely• Full reduplication • Partial reduplication • Rhythmic reduplication • Reduplication of meaning [edit] Measure wordsAnother distinguishing feature of Malay is its use of measure words (penjodoh bilangan). In this way, it is similar to many other languages of Asia, including Chinese, Vietnamese, Burmese, and Bengali.Measure words cannot be translated into English. Examples are :measure word used for measuring literary translation examplebuah thing (in general) 'fruit' dua buah meja (two tables), lima buah rumah (five houses)orang person, human 'person' seorang lelaki (a man), enam orang petani (six farmers), seratus orang murid (a hundred students)biji rounded object 'grain' sebiji telur (an egg)[edit] Part of SpeechIn Malay, there are 4 parts of speech:• Nouns • Verbs • Adjectives • Function words [edit] Function wordsThere are 16 types of function words in Malay which perform a grammatical function in a sentence. [11] Amongst these are conjunctions, interjections, prepositions, negations and determiners.[edit] NegationsThere are two negation words in Malay, that is bukan and tidak. Bukan is used to negate noun phrases and prepositions in a predicate, whereas tidak is used to negate verbs and adjectives phrases in a predicate.Subject Negation PredicateLelaki yang berjalan dengan Birsilah itu(That boy who is walking with Birsilah) bukan(is not) teman lelakinya(her boyfriend)Surat itu(The letter) bukan(is not) daripada teman penanya di Perancis(from his penpal in France)Pelajar-pelajar itu(Those students) tidak(do not) mengikuti peraturan sekolah(obey school regulations)Penguasaan Bahasa Melayunya(His command of Malay language) tidak(is not) sempurna(perfect)The negative word bukan however, can be used before verb phrases and adjective phrases if the sentence shows contradictions.Subject Negation Predicate ContradictionKarangannya(His composition) bukan(is not) baik sangat,(very good,) tetapi dia mendapat markah yang baik(but he received good marks)Kilang itu(The factory) bukan(is not) menghasilkan kereta Kancil,(producing Kancil cars) sebaliknya menghasilkan Proton Wira(instead is producing Proton Wira)[edit] Grammatical genderMalay does not make use of grammatical gender, and there are only a few words that use natural gender; the same word is used for he and she or for his and her. Most of the words that refer to people (family terms, professions, etc.) have a form that does not distinguish between the sexes. For example, adik can both refer to a younger sibling of either sex. In order to specify the natural gender of a noun, an adjective has to be added: adik laki-laki corresponds to "brother" but really means "male younger sibling". There are some words that are gendered, for instance puteri means "princess", and putera means "prince"; words like these are usually absorbed from other languages (in these cases, from Sanskrit).[edit] PluralizationThere is no grammatical plural in Malay. Plurality is expressed by the context, or the usage of words expressing plurality, and by reduplication when needed. However, reduplication has most of the time many other functions and meanings.[edit] VerbsVerbs are not inflected for person or number, and they are not marked for tense; tense is instead denoted by time adverbs (such as "yesterday") or by other tense indicators, such as sudah, "already". On the other hand, there is a complex system of verb affixes to render nuances of meaning and denote active and passive voices or intentional and accidental moods. Some of these affixes are ignored in daily conversations.[edit] Word orderThe basic word order is Subject Verb Object. Adjectives, demonstrative pronouns and possessive pronouns follow the noun they modify.[edit] Borrowed wordsMain article: List of Malay loanwordsThe Malay language has many words borrowed from Arabic (mainly religious terms), Sanskrit, Tamil, Persian, Portuguese, Dutch, certain Chinese dialects and more recently, English (in particular many scientific and technological terms).[edit] Simple phrases in MalayIn Malaysia, to greet somebody with "Selamat pagi" or "Selamat sejahtera" would be considered very formal, and the borrowed word "Hi" would be more usual among friends; similarly "Bye-bye" is often used when taking one's leave.Malay Phrase IPAEnglish TranslationSelamat datang /səlamat dataŋ/ Welcome (Used as a greeting)Selamat jalan /səlamat dʒalan/ Have a safe journey (equivalent to "goodbye", used by the party staying)Selamat tinggal /səlamat tiŋɡal/ Goodbye (Lit translation: "Good stay", used by the party going)Terima kasih /tərima kasih/ Thank youSama-sama /sama sama/ You are welcome (as in a response to Thank You)Selamat pagi /səlamat paɡi/ Good morningSelamat petang /səlamat pətaŋ/ Good afternoon/evening (note that 'Selamat petang' must not be used at night as in English. For a general greeting, use 'Selamat sejahtera')Selamat sejahtera /səlamat sədʒahtəra/ Greetings (formal)Selamat malam /səlamat malam/ Good nightJumpa lagi See you againSiapakah nama awak?/Nama awak apa? What is your name?Nama saya ... My name is ... (The relevant name is placed in front. For example, if your name was Munirah, then you would introduce yourself by saying "Nama saya Munirah", which translates to "My name is Munirah")Apa khabar? How are you? / What's up? (literally, "What news?")Khabar baik Fine, good newsSaya sakit I'm sickYa /ja/ YesTidak ("tak" colloquially) NoIbu (Saya) sayang engkau/kamu (awak) I love you (In a more of a family or affectionate sort of love, e.g.: mother to daughter, the Mother addresses herself as "Ibu" (mother) or Emak (Mother) instead of "Saya" for "I". And the mother also uses the informal "engkau" instead of "awak" for "you".)Aku (Saya) cinta pada mu (awak) I love you (romantic love. In romantic situation, use informal "Aku" instead of "Saya" for "I". And "Kamu" or just "Mu" for "You". In romance, in immediate family communication and in songs, informal pronouns are used). Please note that in Malay language, appropriate personal pronouns must be used depending on (1) whether the situation is formal or informal, (2) the social status of the people around the speaker and (3) the relationship of the speaker with the person spoken to and/or with people around the speaker. For learners of Malay language, it is advised that you stick to formal personal pronouns when speaking Malay to Malays and Indonesians. You risk being considered as rude if you use informal personal pronouns in inappropriate situations.Saya benci awak I hate youSaya tidak faham (or simply "tak faham" colloquially) I do not understandSaya tidak tahu (or "tak tau" colloquially or "sik tau" in Sarawak) I do not know(Minta) maaf I apologise ('minta' is to request)Tumpang tanya "May I ask...?" (used when trying to ask something)(Minta) tolong Please help (me) ('Tolong!' on its own just means "help")Apa WhatTiada Nothing[edit] Colloquial and contemporary usageContemporary usage of Malay includes a set of slang words, formed by innovations of standard Malay words or incorporated from other languages, spoken by the urban speech community, which may not be familiar to the older generation, e.g. awek (girl); balak (guy); usha (survey); skodeng (peep); cun (pretty); poyo/slenge (horrible, low-quality) etc. New plural pronouns have also been formed out of the original pronouns and the word orang ("people"), i.e. kitorang (kita + orang, the exclusive "we", in place of kami); korang (kau + orang, "you"); diorang or derang (dia + orang, "they").The Malay-speaking community, especially in Kuala Lumpur, also code-switch between English and Malay in their speech, forming Bahasa Rojak. Examples of the borrowings are: Bestlah tempat ni (This place is cool);kau ni terror lah (How daring you are; you're fabulous). Consequently, this phenomenon has raised the displeasure of language purists in Malaysia, in their effort to uphold the proper use of the national language.The following are some contractions used by Malay-speaking youths:Non-formalWord FormalWord EnglishTranslation bleh/leh boleh can, able totakleh/tokleh tidak boleh cannotko engkau younape kenapa whycamne macam mana/bagaimana howgi pergi gokat dekat/di atne mana wheretau tahu knowje sahaja onlya'ah ya that's rightawek gadis girl/girlfriendbalak pemuda boy/boyfriendskodeng mengintai peepcun cantik awesome/cool/flyjom mari let's gopoyo/selenge teruk horribleblah beredar go awaymeh mari comeapsal apa pasal whytak yah tidak payah not necessarypastu selepas itu after thatamik ambil takepekena makan/minum to eat/drinkThere are also words used by LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual) community which are unique to them. This slang is widely called, bahasa nyah. For example:Non-formalWord FormalWord EnglishTranslation dosi sudah have, done, completedchoi celaka damnuols engkau youmotif kenapa whyharus harus/wajib mustcikcur melacur hookingdeyols mereka themciknek zakar peniscikki/kiki/lala/pepuks wanita womenjah/jork/sajork sahaja onlynoks kak sistergorgonz kacak gorgeoushanjeng anjing dogciktek payu dara breastvranganz berangan dreaminggerdus gersang hornykoser kuasa can, abledinch tidak noado hodoh uglynan ado tidak berfungsi malfunctionvogi anggun voguevass hebat, dahsyat vastkekwat sombong arrogantgayah homoseks gay, homosexualveryder sangat verytacap bersolek makeup, makeoverkaedahnya bagaimanapun howeverkatanya fakta factsover melampau over, so much, overboardsesuatuh menimbulkan syak curioussesuwei/sesowei sesuai appropriateapom rogol rapesentap terasa annoyed, irritatedtaste/tasty citarasa type, tastemenjalang berlayar cruisingcikcap melancap masturbateanak ikan lelaki muda young menaskoke askar armyclust taraf tinggi high classmuskuls berotot muscular, athleticmrasa rasakan take thatdragoon berpakaian wanita drag queenmak/iols/hem saya me, Isheols dia (perempuan) she/herheols dia (lelaki) he/hismelertz meletup explodinggurik senja pondan tua old faggotchantek cantik beautifulcharutan mengejek teasingittew itu thatinnew ini thisgittew gitu like thatcan-do/can-dew boleh tahan not badvley? boleh? can?sinnew sini heresittew sana therebagai dan lain-lain etc.segala semua allhokey baiklah okaytaw tau knowfeeling2 mengidamkan acting like someonegigih rajin hardworking[edit] DictionaryThere are not many different Malay dictionaries. In Malaysia, the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP)'s Kamus Dewan dictionary is the chief arbiter for the language, and is considered the authority in defining Malay usage. Some other dictionaries are:• Kamus Dewan (Institute Dictionary) • Kamus Pelajar (Student Dictionary) • Kamus Oxford (Oxford Dictionary) • Kamus Besar (Big Dictionary) [edit] See also• The list of Malay words and list of words of Malay origin at Wiktionary, the free dictionary and Wikipedia's sibling project • Differences between Malay and Indonesian • Indonesian language • Jawi, an adapted Arabic alphabet for Malay • Language politics • List of English words of Malay origin • Malay-based creole languages • Malaysian English, English language used formally in Malaysia. • Manado Malay • Minangkabau language • Rojak language • Swadesh list of Malay words • Varieties of Malay [edit] References1. ^ http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=zlm 2. ^ http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=ind 3. ^ "Kedah MB defends use of Jawi on signboards". The Star. August 26, 2008. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/26/nation/22168989&sec=nation. 4. ^ http://www.indonesia.go.id/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=112&Itemid=1722 Official Indonesian Government Site(en) - Contains demography information about official language in Indonesia 5. ^ ethnologue.com : "Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian, Malayic, Malayan, Local Malay" 6. ^ "Alpha-3 Codes Arranged Alphabetically by the English Name of Language." _The Library of Congress_. 7-11-2006. Accessed 13-11-2007. 7. ^ "Codes for the Representation of Names of Languages Part 2: Alpha-3 Code." _The Library of Congress_. 14-11-2006. Accessed 13-11-2007. Note: "ISO 639 provides two sets of language codes, one as a two-letter Giblin code set (639-1) and another as a three-letter code set (this part of ISO 639) for the representation of names of languages." 8. ^ Ethnologue report for Netherlands 9. ^ http://www.bahasa-malaysia-simple-fun.com/bahasa-melayu-kuno.html 10. ^ Malay (Bahasa Melayu). Retrieved 30 August 2008. 11. ^ http://faculty.unitarklj1.edu.my/ALD0063/week/week6/MORFOLOGI/GOLONGAN%20KATA.doc [edit] External links